Thursday, February 21, 2013

Here are some of the design work I did for my friend Sam Levine when he was developing his film Joe Jump. It was done around 2006 and I remember doing hundreds of drawings. The project was shelved but the idea was brought back as Wreck- it Ralph.
I had a great time on the project.

Friday, February 8, 2013

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Since I started in animation I was always curious to know who were the animators who did the scenes that impressed me and stood out in the films I watched.
I remember watching "An American Tail 2 - Fievel Goes West" and could not believe how amazing the animation of the cat villain was. In "Balto", what stood out for me was the animation of Boris the goose and I wanted to know who did it.
Well, the name in the credits as supervising animator for those characters was Kristof Serrand but I had no idea who he was or how he looked like or came from.

There was no internet at the time and the only way to get information was through magazines and books and they were scarce and there was nothing I could find regarding those films.

A few years go by and I see "The Prince of Egypt" and I get this book on the making of the movie. In it I find Kristof listed as supervising and his photo and biography. Now I had face to the name of this animator who's work impressed so much.
Now, after all these years, I feel very lucky to be working with him. Actually he's my boss for he's the head of animation for "Me and My Shadow".
In my opinion, Kristof is one of the best animators of all time. His animation is flawless and his acting superb. He's also a great admirer of the work of Milt Kahl.

Below are some of Kristof's beautiful drawings and model sheets.

I urge you to go rent the DVDs of Fievel Goes West and Balto and watch the animation of of the cat villain and Boris, the goose and see what I mean. Also, watch Prince of Egypt and study Rameses animation and in The Road to Eldorado watch the animation of the horse, all supervised by Kristof.
I have been studying Kristof's animation recently and I just hope to achieve his level one of these days.

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About Me

I started working in animation at the age 15 as an inbetweener and moved up to Animator within 2 years. I learned on the job, working on TV commercials from 1985 to 1990. I n the summer of 1990 I went to Ireland and applied to work at the Don Bluth's studio and was hired as an Animator. I worked with them for 6 years and after animating on "Anastasia" I applied to Disney Feature Animation in Burbank and was hired to work on "Fantasia 2000", animating the "Firebird" segment. After that I worked as a Lead Animator on "The Emperor's New Groove", helped a little on "Tarzan" and became a Supervising Animator on "Home on the Range". During the production of Home on the Range I moved to Disney Florida to work on the, now shelved, production of "My People's". I moved back to Brazil and spent the next four years working as a freelancer Animator on projects such as Disney's "Enchanted", "Axterix and the Vikings", "Proud Family" and “Curious George”. In 2008 I was hired to work on The Secrets of the Furious Five and as an Animator on Disney's "The Princess and the Frog". . I am currently working as a designer for several studios. I also have published books on my approach to Animation and design and a children's book.